The Special Commission on the Rights of the Child and Youth Protection, otherwise known as the Laurent Commission, began the first of three days of hearings at the Delta Hotel in Sherbrooke on Tuesday. Created in the wake of the death of a young girl in Granby last April, the commission is the largest scale review of youth protection services taking place in the Province and is meant to examine not just the services that failed the particular child who died last year, but the entire system as a whole.“We are beginning our fourth week of audiences since the holidays here in Sherbrooke,” said commission Chair Régine Laurent just prior to the beginning of Tuesday’s hearings. “Our work is going at a good pace, and it continues.” Up to last Thursday, February 13, the commission heard from citizens and professionals who work with youth on a daily basis at a series of forums. “We saw more than 2,000 people from the 17 administrative regions of Quebec,” Laurent said, noting that there were 42 citizen and professional forums in total. See full story in the Wednesday, Feb. 19 edition of The Record.
